Cytomixis and its role in the regulation of plant fertility

Abstract

UV and gamma irradiation of barley seedlings induces an increase in the number of various pathologies in the male reproductive system of plants. The majority of cytological abnormalities are rather nonspecific. The main type of the observed pathologies of microsporogenesis is cytomixis, whose activation correlates with a callose hypersecretion in microsporocyte walls. A negative correlation between cytomixis and the sterility of microspores (in the case of gamma irradiation) or the sterility of mature pollen grains (in the case of UV-B irradiation) is revealed. It is supposed that cytomixis represents a kind of a premeiotic cell selection in plants characterized by an intraorganismic genetic heterogeneity (mosaics). The novelty of the idea is that the cytopathology that accompanies cytomixis is considered as a mechanism of the induced death of genetically imbalanced or nonrepairable cells, which is intended to keep the fertility of a male reproductive system. The activation of this mechanism has a threshold character. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.